Bread and Roses

Bread and Roses is a collective of women identified radio activists. We offer feminist public affairs programming. We give voice to those working for social justice and equity, globally and locally. We strive to challenge systems of oppression. All this, and we have fun!

Sheepish: Two Women, Fifty Sheep & Enough Wool to Save the Planet

We welcome author Catherine Friend. This sometimes reluctant farmer's wife shares the woolly tale of becoming "sheepish", that is "of or belonging to sheep". Her memoir "Sheepish" is a funny and thoughtful journey through the middles of life--when the beginning was a lesbian couple's dream of a family farm. Her weave of farm stories and wool will make you laugh and ponder the weave of your own life. Call in at 503-231-8187. Celebrate sustainable farming, creative living, and evolving sheepishness!

Dr. Pamela Sky Jeanne is a naturopathic physician with over 45 years of medical experience and an adjunct faculty at National College of Natural Medicine in Portland, OR. Her new book Healing Matters: Celebrating Women’s Innate Healing Nature explores the lack of feminine energy in the western world of medicine but also retells the medical contributions of many women throughout history. Tune in to Bread and Roses for a live interview with local author, physician and professor Dr. Pamela Sky Jeanne.

A Right to Heal: Veterans organizing to combat the widespread trauma of our endless wars continue a campaign demanding A Right To Heal. We'll speak with former soldier Maggie Martin, an organizer with Iraq Veterans Against the War's campaign Operation Recovery. The campaign seeks to heal both soldiers and communities by ending the practice of redeploying injured troops. www.ivaw.org/operation-recovery

Military recruiters and other army personnel now have easy access to children, including in public schools where they did not use to, such as in Portland. Parents often are unaware that the US military can obtain their child's data. Learn the details and what we can do in response from Carol Van Houten from Truth in Recruiting. We will also discuss community mobilizations in response to what has become known as "school to prison pipeline."We will then look at what is increasingly missing from public schools and talk to Jessica Jarratt Miller who manages the campaign "Schools & Arts Together" and directs the Creative Advocacy Network.

Bread and Roses welcomes Della Rae, author of the Little Book of Self-Care.

The Little Book of Self-Care covers all aspects of self-care, including identifying who you are, what you stand for, operating with personal integrity, following instincts, setting intention, extracting lessons from mistakes, love and relationships, dealing with other people, letting go of the past, and caring enough about yourself to live the way you want to be remembered.

Cory hails from Portland, Oregon. She is a queer fierce fat femme, a cultural worker and educator. Her cultural work predominantly focuses on intersectionality and visibility within identity politics and social justice. Cory specifically dedicates her time to issues of fat identity, mujerisma, LGBTQ and racial justice, Latin@ visibility, and school/education reform. She is one of the founders of Eugene Sudbury School. Cory currently coaches students in their first year of college, writes for several blogs/websites and presents her workshop series on fat activism/identity, QTPOC intersectionality, mujerisma, environmental justice, social media social justice, and critical lenses on allyship. Contact her at corylira@gmail.com

Anti-Black graffiti in Portland? We'll look at the History of Black Folks in Oregon with Walidah Imarisha. Last Thursday John Bryant, the grandmaster at the MW St. Joseph Grand Lodge discovered racist graffiti on the wall of the lodge near Fremont Street and Mississippi Avenue. Nearby food carts were also vandalized with anti-African American graffiti. The community got together on Saturday on Mississippi Avenue for a walk through and sit-in event entitled "Surviving Mississippi" to protest the vandalism.

In the light of this event, Bread and Roses will air an interview Delphine Criscenzo and Samantha Taylor conducted with Historian and Activist Walidah Imarisha last spring focusing on the history of Black folks in oregon.

Members of the first women's cycling team to ride the entire 2,162 miles of the Tour de France join us tonight with a tale of inspiration and triumph. The team faced challenges to both body and spirit, including criticism from those who told them they wouldn't survive the ride. Call in: 503-231-8187

Women were instrumental in the Occupy movement across the United States, but in many cities that movement was still male dominated. There were allegations of sexual assault, abuse and explicitly sexist language. What does confronting this reality - or not - mean for creating that other world Occupy strives for? Join a conversation with a group of women from Occupy Portland who experienced the above and responded by forming a support system for women.

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The popularity of nail salons and beauty spas is very high. But how much of the beauty we buy is toxic? And what are the work conditions like behind the aroma-therapeutic fog?
A conversation with Lisa Fu, Program Director for the Californian Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative. She introduces us to the mostly immigrant women who work in the salons, to their work conditions and to the toxic substances both they and their customers are exposed to. We explore what can be done to improve that reality.
We also discuss the conditions in the local Aveda-branded Dosha salons and spas. Madelyn Elder, President of Communications Workers of America Local 7901, talks about violations of federal labor law and the response by the owner and management when workers decided to unionize. We also visit Aveda Beauty Schools.

Portland Lesbian Choir members Sparky, Kai and Cindy remember the early years of the choir and its accomplishments over the years. They describe their exciting upcoming 25th anniversary concert celebration and after-party: Don't Stop Believing! Finally they discuss Oregon's fights around LGBTQ rights and recent national victories.

For more information about the choir and their celebration concert visit www.plchoir.org

Koreen Brown discusses the importance of providing cultural and racial equity to Portland Public School's students experiencing significant mental health concerns as well as the findings of her academic research on Mexican American males counter stories of educational success.

Koreen is a vice principal for Portland Public School's Dart Program or Day and Residential Treatment Program where she is a strong advocate and leader for racial equity. She is also a doctoral student at Lewis and Clark College in the Educational Leadership for Social Justice Program. Her research is on the Mexican American adolescent males counter stories.

Atkinson School, one of many Portland Public Schools is suffering from fund cuts for 2 and half position for next year. Listen to community organizers Kim Heron, Diana Cameron, Savannah Paz, Carissa Harrison and Constance San Juan about the actions parents, teachers and community memebers are taking to save their children's education.

Back in February the city of Philadelphia's school system announced the closing of 40 public school to be replaced by privately owned private and charter schools by 2017. This announcement received very little to no coverage by the local or national media. It appears that this pattern is not new and is repeating itself all over the nation. Here in Portland, Atkinson elementary school and its students and families are protesting Portland Public School's budget cuts.

In honor of International Midwife Day on 5/5/12, Bread and Roses hosts PDX Homebirth Families to talk about Out of hospital birth options. We also spoke with photographer Andrea Leoncavallo about her photo project She Inspires 365.

Dr. Laila Amine on Arab immigration and race relations in France. Bread and Roses' host Del Criscenzo asks Laila, her compatriot, about the history of French Imperialism and Arab immigration to France. They discuss racism and race relations in their country as well as Maghrebi literature and its contributions to denouncing historical silencing. Laila Amine specializes in twentieth-century African American and African Diaspora literature with particular interest in comparative race and ethnic studies. Her current project, Algerian Paris: Belonging beyond Diaspora uncovers how the Algerian war (1954-1962) and its legacies shaped representations of a transnational Paris in African American, French, and Maghrebi cultural texts. Laila Amine was born in Brest, France in 1977. Her parents emigrated from Morocco in the mid 1960s. Her father worked in the building industry. After studying English at the Université Victor Segalen, she lived in Luton, England and Santa Barbara California, before starting her graduate studies at Indiana University. She is now a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

Walidah Imarisha on the history of Blacks in Oregon and race relations in the United States. Samantha Taylor and Del Criscenzo ask Walidah about the peculiar history of African Americans in Oregon and Portland and openly talk about the "isms" that continue to impact our society. Walidah is a historian, a reporter, a poet, a spoken word artist, a documentary film maker, a writer and a community organizer. She teaches for the Black Studies department at Portland State University and in the Women’s Studies Department at Oregon State University. This Spring term you can take her class on the History of the Black Panther Party at PSU, and a class on race, gender and empire in Disney films at OSU. Walidah has written a multitude of essays on the issue of race and race relations, on Hip Hop as well on relevant topics impacting the Black community. She is also a performer and part of the poetry duo called Good Sista, Bad Sista. Lastly she is a member of Decolonize PDX, which is a Portland based collective of radical people of color.

Native Poet Erika Wurth discusses her first collection of poems Indian Trains. Bread and Roses' host Del Criscenzo interviewed Erika a year ago after one of her poetry readings in Bloomington, IN. Erika T. Wurth is Apache, Chickasaw and Cherokee. She was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Colorado between Idaho Springs and Evergreen, although she has lived different places off and on. Her work, both poetry and fiction, has appeared in Raven Chronicles, Fiction, Cedar Hill Review, AMCRJ, and SAIL. She teaches creative writing at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois. She talks with Del about her art, her identiy as an artist, and reads some poems from Indian Trains and her new collection not yet published.

Natasha Kmeto is an electro hip-hop, singer-producer based in Portland, OR. With a rich musical background in jazz, r&b, electronic and hip-hop she likes to describe her music as “futuristic soul.” She sat with Bread and Roses' host Del Criscenzo and talked about her music and her new album released a few weeks ago, "The Ache". A female artist in the predominantly male world of electronic music, Natasha epresses her thoughts about bringing new perspectives to the genre. For more info about Natasha Kmeto or access to her music visit http://www.natashakmeto.com/